Sometimes it’s obvious that your computer is no longer running as quickly as it did at first. Like gaining weight, the incremental change is small, but eventually you wake up and realize you can no longer see your feet.
As magical as they are, computers are constrained in a few very distinct ways. First, they have a limited amount of volatile memory (in other words, it forgets what it contained when the computer is turned off). You’ve probably heard of it referred to as random access memory (RAM), and most personal computers these days come with between 1 and 4 gigabytes.
Second, computers have a certain amount of processing power, determined by the type of central processing unit (CPU). Each CPU has a different “natural” data-handling size (32 or 64 bits), different processing speed (measured in billions of cycles per second, or gigahertz), and possibly multiple processing cores (single, dual or quad-core).
The third component of overall performance relates to your hard disk. A bigger one won’t make your computer run faster, but each type of disk has characteristics that affect how fast it can read and write data, and that does affect overall performance. A disk that rotates faster is faster at reading and writing a block of data. Most personal computer disks are 5,400 or 7,200 RPM. A disk’s average latency determines how long it takes to start reading or writing data. Each type of hardware interface (IDE, SATA) has an upper performance limit. And buffering lets disk hardware accept data faster than it can be written, or lets data be read without waiting for the disk itself (eliminating “read latency”). Bigger buffers are, of course, better.
The final possible cause of computer slowness is network speed. There are lots of components to how fast data actually moves over your network connection. Downloading data is typically faster than uploading data. Your Internet service provider may throttle data rates. Your wireless network connection can be slowed by transmission problems. The list is almost endless (and hard to diagnose).
With all of these pieces, it’s a near-miracle your computer works at all. But what do you do if it’s slow?
The easiest answer is, of course, “buy a new computer.” Whatever is slowing your old computer won’t be present on a brand-new one (unless, of course, it’s the network connection). Plus, you get the advantage of the constantly declining price/performance ratio of computer hardware (hardware gets faster and cheaper).
But you probably want to fix the one you have. And there are lots of people who want to sell you an easy-to-use, foolproof solution—just Google “my computer is slow.” Many of them relate to cleaning the Registry, the part of Microsoft Windows that keeps track of what’s installed on your computer. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that cleaning out your Windows Registry actually improves performance. Since the information in the Registry is mostly used when a program starts up, there’s a limit to what it can do.
(Macintosh enthusiasts: I apologize for being Windows-centric here. Macs get slow, too. Keep reading.)
We’ve already seen it’s memory, disk, network, and CPU that determine your computer’s performance. A computer slows down when one or more of them are overtaxed or not working properly. The first thing, then, is to see if errors are occurring. Windows logs hardware errors, but you have to know where to look for them. Again, if you Google (or Bing!) for “Windows errors,” you’ll find lots of people willing to sell you easy-to-use, foolproof solutions. But how do you know if they’ll work before you spend the money? Even the programs that offer “try before you buy” typically only offer a list of the problems they found, not an indication of how effective fixing those problems will be.
Here’s my best advice on how to fix a slow computer. First, if it’s truly old, and you’re trying to run the latest programs on it, it may in fact be too slow. Rather than spending $29.95 on software that alleges to fix your system, or $100 on a hardware upgrade, your best bet is to use that money toward a new system.
Still here? Then take some time to characterize what “slow” actually means. Does the computer just take a long time to start up? Is it only Web access that’s slow? Do you perceive slowness when retrieving email? Does it happen at a particular time of day? To fix system slowness, you have to be a clear thinker and a bit of a detective.
Next, determine if there are errors occurring. A CPU or memory error will generally result in a system crash, not just slowness. But disk errors can be silent performance killers. Under Windows, you’ll need to learn how to use the Event Viewer (Google it).
No errors? Then two problems are likely: You don’t have enough RAM, or you have programs running that you don’t know about. Programs running in the background fall into two categories: good and bad. Eliminating the bad requires using a program like Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.com), which is free. Microsoft includes Windows Defender, and if both report you’re clean, great!
Good programs running in the background include things like disk indexers, antivirus and antispam programs, and “fast start” programs. Because they’re “good” programs, you need to decide if they actually provide a benefit to you. If they don’t, uninstall them or turn them off. This may have little effect on slowness if these programs don’t consume much CPU or disk space. Whatever you do, don’t just randomly disable stuff—you can end up with a nonfunctional system, not just one that’s slow.
If eliminating useless good programs doesn’t speed things up enough, it’s time for my final suggestion: add a full 4 gigabytes of RAM to your system and forget about it. Extra memory avoids swapping information to and from your hard disk, which is particularly bad when it’s the operating system that’s getting swapped in and out. Crucial Memory (www.crucial.com) is a good place to get help with your memory upgrade.
If none of this works, drop me a line at mduffy@northbaybiz.com. You may be the subject of a future column!
